Briefing Note: How LGBTQIA+ civil society can unlock community-led protection in conflict settings

Published on October 1, 2026
The PRIDE Centre has shared the brief How LGBTQIA+ civil society can unlock community-led protection in conflict settings written with the Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI Global.
 
This paper draws on research from DRC, Syria, Haiti and Ethiopia to illustrate how local civil society and community benefit organisations work to ensure that their communities are able to access critical protection and humanitarian assistance, even in the most hostile and dangerous settings. The research also shows how international organisations -namely INGOs and UN Agencies- can, and should, do more to reach these extremely vulnerable communities, and demonstrates the fallacy of the oft-cited, reflexive responses of many of these organisations and their staff that assistance to LGBTQIA+ persons in many such environments is (i) illegal (it isn’t), (ii) is too difficult (nope), (iii) is a threat to their staff or operational stability (risks can be mitigated, just like in all humanitarian work), and/or (iv) that their local staff won’t do this work (try talking to them).
 
It provides evidence and data demonstrating how LGBTQIA+ civil society organisations already hold the trust and knowledge needed to reach people who are otherwise excluded from aid, and outline recommendations and lessons for humanitarian actors and donors, including that they should:

  • Fund them properly.

  • Bring them into coordination and decision-making.
  • Assume SOGIESC minorities face heightened risk in all needs assessments, targeting and response plans.
Perceived risks should be assessed and mitigated together with these organisations rather than treated as hard stops, alongside explicit senior-level commitment and internal work to make agencies themselves more inclusive.
 
You can read the paper here. It was written by Clare Brown with The PRIDE Centre and Leen Fouad and Megan Daigle at the HPG.
HPG_Brief-PRIDE_Centre_paper.pdf
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